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Parties gearing up for Mandi bypoll in Himachal Pradesh

While chief minister Virbhadra Singh's wife Pratibha Singh is showing keenness to contest from the constituency on Congress ticket, Bharatiya Janata Party is struggling to find a winning candidate.

| TNN | Updated: Apr 21, 2013, 02:57 IST

SHIMLA: Even though there is confusion over by-election for the Mandi parliamentary seat, which was vacated by Virbhadra Singh after he became state chief minister, as the general elections too may be announced anytime, political parties in the state are not taking any chances in case polling takes place. While chief minister Virbhadra Singh's wife Pratibha Singh is showing keenness to contest from the constituency on Congress ticket, Bharatiya Janata Party is struggling to find a winning candidate.

Pratibha Singh, who in past had represented this seat, is likely to be the Congress candidate as during her recent visit to Mandi she made her intentions of contesting the election clear. On the other hand, BJP is in a spot with Maheshwar Singh, who used to be its candidate in the past, parting ways to float his own party and moving closer to Virbhadra Singh.

To strengthen its position, Congress will hold a rally on Tuesday in Balh area of Mandi district where chief minister Virbhadra Singh and Pratibha Singh along with other Congress leaders would remain present. The rally will be a show of strength with excise and taxation minister Prakash Chaudhary, a close loyalist of Virbhadra Sing, himself seeing arrangements to ensure its success.

While Congress has already started its mass mobilization programme, opposition BJP on its part is struggling to find a suitable candidate. BJP in past had fielded Maheshwar Singh who had represented this seat in 1989, 1998 and 1999 but now Maheshwar Singh has left BJP to float his own Himachal Lokhit party (HLP). These days Maheshwar Singh is close to Virbhadra Singh and it is expected that during the election he would support Congress candidate.

BJP too is holding its executive meeting in Kullu to prepare roadmap for the 2014 parliamentary elections where among with other issues party leaders would also discuss about the candidate to be fielded from Mandi. In the 2009 elections, Virbhadra Singh had polled 3,40,973 votes while BJP candidate Maheshwar Singh had secured 3,26,976 votes.

Considering the tough geographical contours of the constituency, the candidate needs to be acceptability not only in Mandi district alone but also in the tribals areas of Lahaul-Spiti, Pangi-Bharmaur and Kinnaur besides Kullu district.

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